The Red Queen

Matt Ridley has written The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. In it he discusses how human culture and human biology are intertwined, and how both are created.

The book's title is based on Lewis Carrol's character, and stresses that change is a part of organic order. I had always wondered why creatures did not reproduce using fission like the amaeba, and discovered that parasites and disease would decimate large, long-lived creatures unless each generation was genetically dissimilar from its parent. I found it a fascinating book.

-DD